Having seen the trailer for this film, I was thrilled when Warner Bros. pictures asked if I wanted to review it. It looked like a fast, exciting film and with Tom Hanks and Sandra Bullock in it, it was sure to be a good, easy to watch family movie…. wasn’t it?
Adapted from the acclaimed bestseller by Jonathan Safran Foer, “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close” is a story that unfolds from inside the young mind of Oskar Schell, an inventive eleven year-old New Yorker whose discovery of a key in his deceased father’s belongings sets him off on an urgent search across the city for the lock it will open.
A year after his father died in the World Trade Center on what Oskar calls “The Worst Day,” he is determined to keep his vital connection to the man who playfully cajoled him into confronting his wildest fears. Now, as Oskar crosses the five New York boroughs in quest of the missing lock – encountering an eclectic assortment of people who are each survivors in their own way – he begins to uncover unseen links to the father he misses, to the mother who seems so far.
The trailer looked really good, so husband and I settled down comfortably with our bowl of popcorn looking forward to our evenings entertainment. Unfortunately it started off very slowly and for us just didn’t seem to pick up. At one point I even fell asleep (whoops). When I woke up, it actually looked liked we had got to a good part. Then it slowed back down again before ending in a very unsatisfactory way.
For us this film looked promising but was very disappointing. There appeared to be too much going on so none of it was covered properly. The young boy had Aspergers syndrome…was this the main point of the story? or was it 9/11, what he calls The worst Day. Maybe it was about his relationship with his father or his mother, his grandmother and her lodger, even the people he meets during his search. We were not really sure.
The actual hunt for the lock the key fitted din’t even end satisfactory. We were left feeling a bit lost, confused even.
I wanted this film to be so much better than it actually was…it should have been so much better. I wish I could have written a better review. Don’t just take my word for it though, feel free to watch and form your own opinions.
Karen x